This painting hung over the sofa in my maternal grandparents' apartment, and as a child I found it spooky and unsettling. Odd colors, unnameable forms, and that enigmatic eye... it was deeply imprinted in my mind. When my grandmother passed away in the spring, I asked to have the painting. Not because I "liked" it, but because it made me think of her, my grandfather, and the apartment they lived in since 1946. When I took it home and unwrapped it I was bracing myself to feel some regret, worried that it would be too creepy or just make me sad. Instead, seeing it outside of my grandparents' apartment for the first time, I was awestruck.

I want to share a visualization technique I've been using and recommending more and more lately for when you need to summon your own inner power and presence, for example when preparing for a challenging situation or an encounter with a difficult person or group, or just when you're feeling depleted and low and need to call up your best self. I think of it as "turning up my volume."